Not in the Mood for Meal Planning

Yup. For some reason, most of us (myself included) are just terrible at planning out what's going to be for dinner. Instead we go from day to day like culinary zombies, wandering around the internet for recipes to inspire us or grocery stories for some new, probably on-sale item, to do the same.

At Chicory we like to ask our customers "what type of grocery shopper are you?"

Most say that they're an 'opportunist' grocery shopper.

" 'what's for dinner?' is answered day by day. Whether it's a 10:30 am text from your significant other or finding a cool recipe online during your lunch break, you pick up what you need for dinner on your way back home each day."

But almost everyone who describes herself as the 'opportunist' follows up that answer by saying "I like to plan out meals... I know I should plan out meals more... but it's hard."

Well, here's a little more inspiration: Our top reasons to get in the mood for meal planning.

1. Leftovers - when you know what you'll be making and buying it becomes a lot easier to turn leftovers into a planned out meal rather than something that sits around in your fridge, forgotten.

2. Enjoy more variety - think of the weekly meal plan as a food panorama: you can see the entire weeks worth of meals from end to end with room to arrange to add the level of variety you see fit.

3. Spend less - For every minute over 30 minutes that you spend in a grocery store it's estimated that you spend an additional $1 per minute. Know what you have to buy and get out! Fast!

4. Decrease the number of trips to the grocery store - Gas and time add up when you're constantly driving back and forth from the supermarket. Sure, you'll always have to make those last minute trips but doing some sort of meal planning will greatly decrease their regularity and length.